How Many HS Students are “College-Ready”?

Less than half, according to the College Board. Julia Ryan, writing in today’s Atlantic, reports:

Of the 1.66 million high school students in the class of 2013 who took the SAT, only 43 percent were academically prepared for college-level work, according to this year’s SAT Report on College & Career Readiness. For the fifth year in a row, fewer than half of SAT-takers received scores that qualified them as “college-ready.”

The College Board considers a score of 1550 to be the “College and Career Readiness Benchmark.” Students who
meet the benchmark are more likely to enroll in a four-year college, more likely to earn a GPA of a B- or higher their freshman year, and more likely to complete their degree.

Read the whole thing. And here’s a similar report in Bloomberg, which notes:

Average scores were 514 for math, 496 for critical reading and 488 for writing, matching last year’s results.

The SAT scores have declined or stagnated for years, from 2005 highs of 520 in math and 508 in reading. The average writing score has decreased almost every year since that section debuted in 2006 at 497.